Open Door Mission – January 2023

January News & Updates

Thank you for taking the time to read our monthly e-newsletter that communicates Mission news, updates, prayer requests, needs, events and success stories.

Help Support Our New Residents
This Fall, we opened 24 permanent supportive housing units for formerly homeless individuals. Our new apartments are fully furnished but some of our residents are lacking some basic items. If you can help provide some basics, please click on our AMAZON WISH LIST Your help will ensure our residents will get off to a great start in their new home!
Can We Come Visit Your Church?
We would love to come and be a part of your Sunday service or weekday bible study.
There’s so many new developments, improvements and success stories to share with multiple opportunities to engage your congregation in service to the Lord at the Mission.
Call us today at (585) 325-3243 to put us on your calendar.
Volunteer Service Opportunity
URGENT VOLUNTEER NEED to serve in the Mission’s food pantry area and for donations of gently used jackets and winter coats.
Please consider a group volunteer effort to serve breakfast at our emergency shelter.
To view and sign up for other volunteer opportunities, please CLICK HERE!
If you have any questions, please email Shawn Baldwin at sbaldwin@opendoormission.com
Open Door Mission Job Opportunities
  • Weekend Case Aid – Addiction Recovery – Part Time, 16-24 hours/week
  • Overnight Supervisor – Emergency Shelter – Full Time
  • Case Manager – Emergency Shelter – Full Time
  • Case Aid – Emergency Shelter – Part Time, 16-24 hours

For serious consideration of any posted job description, each applicant is required to complete an Application for Employment and General Questionnaire.

Click HERE to view more details of all these job descriptions!

“Hope Lives” Radio

Tune in to hear the latest information effecting our communities homeless population and how Open Door Mission is addressing key issues.
CLICK HERE to listen to the podcast of the most recent program.
Business Sponsorship Opportunities Available!
Call Chris Scribani at (585) 325-3243 for more details.
Current Needs List
Going shopping this week? Please take a look at our current needs list and consider buying a few items from our Amazon
If you’re shopping for yourself then please consider shopping at AmazonSmile.com where a percentage of your purchasing dollars go to support the Mission.
Create Your Personal Giving Account
Did you know you could have complete access to all your giving records with the Open Door Mission?
It’s especially helpful if you give regularly with a debit or credit card account. It’s also helpful at the end of the year when you need your history of gifts to report during tax filing season.
Go to OpenDoorMission.com today and click the MY ACCOUNT button in the top right corner of your screen to create a personal username and password.
What To Pray For
1. Pray for the salvation and restoration of all those we serve with emergency shelter, food, clothes, addiction recovery, transitional housing, life skills and job readiness programs.
2. Pray for peace and health to all of our staff and their families.
3. Pray for the families that just came into the Coldwater House and for those who recently moved out into their own permanent housing.
4. Pray for continued success for the men who recently graduated from our addiction recovery program and for those just entering the program.
5. Pray for the Mission’s permanent supportive housing apartment residents.
6. Pray for the necessary resources to maintain our daily expenses.

Hautle Prayer Points – January 2023

January 11, 2023

Dear praying friend,

“…since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 5:1

War is devastating and destructive. It ruins lives and property. It destroys physically and psychologically. We see this in the nearly daily images and videos coming from Ukraine. How much more devastating a war against God is? But yet, through Christ we have peace with God! Praise God this message of peace continues to be proclaimed even in the midst of earthly war and destruction. Christmas clubs took place throughout Europe and boys and girls put their faith in Christ—the faith that brings peace!

PRAISES

  • Praise God for the many, many Christmas Clubs held across Europe. We’re rejoicing for the children who put their faith in Jesus and we’re praying this opens the doors for more church partnerships and a growth in Good News Clubs.
  • Several Children’s Ministry Leadership Courses were held last year in Romania, Germany and Ireland. Thank the Lord for more workers for the harvest field!

REQUESTS

  • Brent and his father will drive to Mississippi Jan. 12-13 and the return trip Jan. 16-17. Pray as they spend time with family, and for the Lord to give them safe travels.
  • Amy and Christopher are going on their youth group snow camp retreat Jan. 13 and will return on the 15th. Pray this is a spiritually enriching time for them and the 60+ teens, and for their safety.
  • We are putting together a trip for training in early February. Please pray for the details of this trip.
  • Work continues on the Youth Challenge manuals and the camp packet. Please pray for these items to get completed quickly.
  • Please continue to pray about the war in Ukraine—especially for the CEF workers still there and those who have fled the country. Pray for the Hope for Ukraine project bringing the Gospel to displaced children across Europe.

Thank you!  We greatly covet your prayers!

News from the Field’s – December 2022

MERRY CHRISTMAS family at 2nd Marion!

We can’t thank you enough for your gift of taking care of us financially or in prayer this year.

The Lord is using you with your prayer support and financial sharing, to help provide for our physical needs each day,

and we want to thank you with all our hearts.

Is there any way we can be praying for you in this season of life?

God has again been so amazing to us this year!

He has blessed us with encouragement and strength from His Word.

He has gifted all four of us with good health all year.

He has shown His perfect faithfulness as we bring Him our requests.

He has guided us in conversations and relationships with students.

He has given us wisdom as we pour into our grown sons.

He has given us peace as we watch Him put together His plans in His ways.

He has given sustenance as we complete tasks well that He has entrusted us with.

He has given us direction as we lay our questions in His lap.

He has given us joy as we look back at his minute-by-minute faithfulness and we look forward to the adventures of His continued faithfulness.

We are here delighting in Him as we take one step by one step trusting Him, leaning on Him, keeping our eyes on Him as we take His light burden as He carries us on this adventure called life.

He is truly amazing, and we give Him praise and glory.

Dave, Kim, Reece & Clark Field

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Tom & Leslie Johnson – December 2022

News from Tom and Leslie Johnson

We wish you all a happy holiday season!
May the joy of Christ’s coming as a baby
fill your heart as you look forward to
His return.
Have a healthy and happy New Year of 2023!

We hope you have had a blessed Advent, celebrating the coming of Jesus. Today is the third day of Christmas, as some count, but we are not thinking about the three French hens mentioned in the famous song.

When we moved to Prague in 1996, several of my (Tom’s) first university students were refugees from the Yugoslav Wars, wars filled with unspeakable crimes against humanity. My students had been on opposite sides in the war. In a class on the ethics of war, a young woman told her experience of holding a friend in her arms while he died, after he had been hit by a sniper. A young man in the class said he might have been the sniper who killed her friend, since he had been a sniper on the other side at that time and place. They had all fled so they would not have to kill or be killed. Since that time, we have heard and seen the plight of numerous people fleeing for their lives, many of whom are our brothers and sisters in Christ.

On the recent Keith and Kristyn Getty “Sing! An Irish Christmas,” we heard the English poet Malcolm Guite recite his poem “Refugee.” We found it very encouraging. Guite included it as a reading for December 28 in a book of poems for Advent which he edited, which I quickly purchased.

Refugee
We think of him as safe beneath the steeple,
Or cosy in a crib beside the font,
But he is with a million displaced people
On the long road of weariness and want.
For even as we sing our final carol
His family is up and on that road,
Fleeing the wrath of someone else’s quarrel,
Glancing behind and shouldering their load.
Whilst Herod rages still from his dark tower
Christ clings to Mary, fingers tightly curled,
The lambs are slaughtered by the men of power,
And death squads spread their curse across the world.
But every Herod dies, and comes alone
To stand before the Lamb upon the throne.

Malcolm Guite, Waiting on the Word (Norwich: Canterbury Press, 2015) Kindle, 2036-2042.

Thank you so much!

We appreciate you all and are thankful for the Lord’s work through you!

Tom & Leslie Johnson

News from the Fields – November 2022

Represent Jesus in each of our

 spheres of influence.

Recently Dave & I joined about 70 students on a trip to Ethnos Missionary training Center in Missouri. It was an exposure trip for them to see what next steps could look like for them.

We got to have deep and important conversations with our vanload since it was 9 hours one way!

We got to worship with the students there, plus sit in amazing classes like:
Global perspective
13 stages of church planting
case studies relating to culture
intro to learning an unwritten language
Missions in closed access settings
and much more!

We had the gift of a Thai meal where the missionaries taught us about Thai culture and how to eat in a Thai tribal setting. They told us how important it is to learn their language and culture before presenting the gospel.

We were able to spend time with the students there and ask all sorts of questions about the training they are experiencing right now! What are they learning in classes, what is God teaching them?

All of the students there are put in groups led by two staff families during their duration at training. They become family to each other and pray together, study together and play together. All of us from EBI were divided into all the small groups and were able to experience the genuine love in those community groups. It truly is a special thing!

God is so AMAZING and SO worthy to be praised! And we are so grateful to be partnering with you as we all reflect His light in our little spheres of influence!!

Dave & Kim Field

Global Scholars News – November 2022

News from Tom and Leslie Johnson

Thank You!
G20 Religion Forum in Indonesia

A Note from Tom

I would like to thank you because you made it possible for me to represent many millions of Christians at the first G20 Religion Forum.

The G20, which was founded to prevent future global economic crises, has been mostly a gathering of heads of state, finance ministers, secretaries of trade, and central bankers from the 20 largest economies. More recently the G20 leadership has begun to add discussions of topics that have global impacts on societies and economies. This year, while Indonesia was coordinating the events, discussion of religions was added.

Already for a couple generations the largest Indonesian Muslim group, with whom the WEA has a religious freedom joint working group, has been trying to allow the peaceful development of both Protestant and Catholic churches. This peaceful neighborliness of Muslims with Christians forms the background for the economic growth of their country. Now, through the G20, political and religious leaders from other major countries are publicly considering how to apply this model in their countries. Even the first steps in this process, such as top Saudi Arabian Muslim leaders having their pictures taken while attending meetings with Christians, will reduce the persecution of Christians in their countries, including saving the lives of Christians.

It is valuable for Christians to support this process and to have representatives at the table for the discussions. Again, thank you for letting me represent Christians in this forum by means of your giving, praying, and encouragement. My invitation to give a speech at this event was the result of years of study, writing, and meetings while you were supporting us. We hope you will continue supporting us with prayer and finances.

Tom chose to sit during his speech, partly because of a sore hip, partly because of the image of a table of discussion which he used.

Settling In

As of our last newsletter, we were still waiting for our stuff. About a week after that letter our moving van arrived. Woohoo!

As expected, we have put a LOT of stuff into storage. The house we are renting is a bit tight for 6 of us and 2 dogs. And it is still the plan to rent for 6-12 months and look for two houses (or one bigger house) to buy. So, we don’t want to unpack, only to have to pack it again.

We would appreciate your prayers as we go through this settling into Knoxville, finding a church, and getting our feet back under us for our ministries. Without your prayers, we could do nothing!

Leslie’s Update

Representing Refugees and Immigrants

As you know, I now work part-time for the PCA’s Mission to North America (MNA) Refugee and Immigrant Ministry as the Cross-cultural Training Specialist. In September, in that role, I attended meetings for the heads of the different ministries working under Mission to North American (MNA), not as the head of the Refugee and Immigrant Ministry, but on behalf of the director, Pat Hatch.

In October, I stood in for Pat and our ministry again at a Church Planters Summit held at Covenant Seminary. The idea was to have all the ministries of MNA there so church planters can see what is available as they work to grow new churches.

Now I am getting to know the ministries in the Knoxville area that are ministering to refugees and immigrants. Recently, I was trained as a volunteer for Bridge Refugee Services, and I met with the person who is the “School Liaison.” She and I will be planning some trainings together, and I may do some tutoring.

The fun fact is that these two works, MNA Refugee and Immigrant Ministry and volunteering for Bridge Refugee Services, go hand in hand. I thank the Lord for this privilege.

ACSI EU and Global

My work with international Christian school accreditation is continuing with ACSI Global. I am looking forward to going to Europe in April to work with a team at an international Christian school in their accreditation process. In the meantime, I will be meeting with school leaders of this school on Zoom for two days just before Thanksgiving to see how things are going and to give encouragement.

Praises:
We thank the Lord for:

  • Tom’s opportunity to serve in Indonesia in early November. (See his update.) This grows out of the request from Indonesian Muslims for Tom and the WEA to do more with them for religious freedom. They repeated the request just before Tom departed Indonesia, after the meetings.
  • The book about the Decalogue which Tom edited is getting distributed.
  • Leslie’s opportunities to serve:
    • Serving the PCA Mission to North America (MNA) as a cross-cultural training specialist in the Refugee and Immigrant Ministry; Her hours will probably be increasing.
    • Serving another school by helping them through an ACSI accreditation process with the team visit happening next Spring.
    • A new addition: helping the School Liaison with her work helping refugee families navigate the school system in Knoxville.

Prayers:

Please join us in praying for:

  • Getting settled in Knoxville: finding a new church, getting all the necessary things changed (driver’s license, car registration, doctors, etc.)
  • Protection from discouragement for the refugee family we have been helping. They continue to wait and work on documents.
  • The refugee family’s transition to a new culture and for all refugees who also are having transition challenges. They will need tremendous courage to face huge challenges in their up-coming transition.
  • More churches to take on supporting refugees. We have done it in the past with the boat people and Vietnam refugees. Let’s do it again now with so many people who need help.
  • All the refugees around the world, including those from Ukraine, Somalia, Democratic Republic of Congo, and the list could go on.
  • Please be praying for the Lord to use us where we are to serve Him and others well.

Thank you for your faithful prayer for us as well as your financial gifts that allow us to do the work He has called us to.

 

CareNet of Wayne County – October 2022

Dear Friends of Care Net,
Please join us on Friday, November 4th at 7:00 PM for our “Celebrate Life” concert at Ohmann Theatre in Lyons. It will be a fun night of praise and music performed by area bands and singers. Invite your friends and family! Church liaisons, we would be grateful if you helped spread the word in your congregations.
For details regarding ticket sales, please see the attached flyer. All proceeds benefit Care Net of Wayne County.
We appreciate your support and hope to see you there!
God Bless,
The Care Net Team

 

Celebrate Life Flyer Autumn